By: Òsárétín Òsádébàmwén – Abuja
Vice Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, has said the counter directive by the Kaduna State Governor that the old Naira note should still remain in use in the state jurisdiction was an affront on the constitutional powers of the president and constitute a treasonable offence.
Datti Baba-Ahmed said this at a press briefing in Abuja while fielding questions from journalist on the import of such directive to the Naira policy and powers of the president.
“If an elected governor of a constituent part of a sovereign country would give directive to the contrary of what is constitutionally the exclusive preserve of the federal government.
“Like it or hate it, Buhari’s government was duly elected and sworn in as the president of a sovereign state and currency matters on sovereign issues. No state governor, especially those who have serially disobeyed court judgements in their political career have the right to challenge the government.
“However, they know themselves better, they know how they came to Power. They know much they collected from each other and what transpired way back in 2013, 2014, 2015.”
Datti added that: “Why a commander in Chief cannot descend irrespective of immunity of a state governor, while as commander in chief, you give out an executive order, clean and constitutional, and, a state governor goes out to say that people should continue of exchange that currency, so that there are two authorities in the country, Why President Buhari is silent about this is best known to them.
“Immunity does not mean that the offence has not been committed. This is a treasonable offence, why Buhari is keeping quiet is strange.
“These are state governments who have not fought the Buhari government for failure to keep all the promises to secure Nigerians. It has made international headlines. They have not challenged Buhari on that.
“They did not challenge Buhari when the Naira fell from N200 to N750 or more now to the dollar, they have not challenged him. It is only the few weeks before elections that they are challenging the President to the extent of giving counter orders of treason, it is close to treason. Lawyers will tell you that better,” Datti-Baba Ahmed stated
The Vice Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party maintained that such reckless comment which undermined the constitutional powers of the President and threatened the seamless implementation of a fiscal policy would not have happened under an Obi presidency as it would have been dealt with constitutionally.
He said while the Labour Party was confident of winning the election because the party had all the odds in its favour, it was cautiously optimistic about the determination of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deliver a free, fair and credible election.
“My personal experiences will not fail to bear here. I have in the past suffered a variety of fraud perpetrated against me in 2007, 2011 and 2012. For that I have been able to know INEC deeply.
“I have also been a keen observer in 2015 and particularly in 2019, the question about how confident I am in INEC delivering a free, fair and credible election?
“I am cautiously optimistic and so should all Nigerians. Until we see free fair credible elections, let them do it and we will believe.”
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